• Yes, another foam thread..

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Kegerator Community Home  »  Draft Beer Dispensing at Home » Kegerator Problems & Troubleshooting » Yes, another foam thread..
Posted:  30 Jul 2014 22:42

Registered User 		Posts:  
Join Date: Jan 1970
Hi... My name's Allen and I love beer....

I hate for this to be my first post, but I need to ask for advice. First I'm using a Keggermeister km2800. It was a gift from my wife so no snickers please..
Anyway, I've added a tower cooler (tower is nice and cold), a fan to circulate and drop temps that's suspended from the inside roof pointing down the cold plate, swapped to 10' x 3/16" beer line that's coiled loosely on top of the keg, and a calibrated digital Thermometer that's submerged in a glass of water next to the keg. My 2nd glass pour temps are between 35 and 36 degrees.
That being said, I have foam.. Not on the first pour but on all of them. I get about 1/2 a glass each time (at least). CO2 is set at 10 psi and has sat overnight. I also get bubbles in the line, and gaps. The gaps are right up near the beer line and Keg coupler (about a 2"-3" gap) and the small bubbles rise from the keg and settle in pockets along the tube.
I've tried bumping the pressure up to 12 psi and only got faster foam. I live at 5800 feet above sea level, so please take that into consideration. Also, the beer I'm using is Odell's easy street wheat. According to Odell's, the CO2 volume to shoot for is 2.6.
Now I've tried those calculations that tell you the line length to use based on CO2 pressure, height to faucet, etc.. and they all come out at like 3' of line (give or take). That's just way too short in my opinion. The original 4' line that came with it was too short. I've also spoken tot a couple of local home brewers and they all said the exact same thing - "10' of 3/16" beer line at 12 psi".. But I get mounds of foam.
So, where do I go from here? If I lower the CO2 to like 7 or 8 psi I get large bubbles in the lines (CO2 breakout) and foam.. So I know I can't do that. Do I need to extend the lines to 12 or 13 feet? I feel like I've done quite a bit of reading on this and have tried all the suggestions you normally see - tower cooler, longer beer lines, etc...
So, I'm open to suggestions.
Posted:  31 Jul 2014 18:54

Administrator 		Posts:  99
Join Date: Mar 2006
Hey Allen,

How many kegs have you gone through with this issue?

Christian
Posted:  03 Aug 2014 14:50

Registered User 		Posts:  
Join Date: Jan 1970
This is my second Keg. I've now tried every pressure between 10 and 14 and still get at least half a glass of foam. I wait 24 hours between pressure changes just in case. Pour temps are 35.7 on the second glass. The tower is very cold so I don't think it's a "first pour" issue, every glass has about 1/2 a glass of foam.
The only change here is that now I don't have any gaps in my beer line. It's always pressurized with no bubbles. I just don't understand why going from a 4' beer line to a 10' didn't help?
Posted:  05 Aug 2014 22:33

Registered User 		Posts:  
Join Date: Jan 1970
Anyone have any other thoughts?